Study identifies factors that shape vaccine preferences

A examine involving hypothetical COVID-19 vaccines means that vaccine effectiveness and danger of unwanted effects considerably affect individuals’s preferences for one vaccine over one other, and that variations between vaccines might matter much less to those that are vaccine hesitant. Sabrina Stöckli of the College of Bern and the College of Zurich, Switzerland, and colleagues current these findings within the open-access journal PLOS ONE on Might 4, 2022.

COVID-19 vaccines are easing the unfold and severity of the illness in lots of components of the world. Regardless of their security and effectiveness, some people who find themselves eligible to get vaccinated are hesitant to take action. A deeper understanding of the elements that affect perceptions of vaccines might assist inform efforts to deal with vaccine hesitancy and keep headway in opposition to the pandemic.

To research vaccine preferences, Stöckli and colleagues introduced greater than 5,000 individuals from France, Germany, and Sweden with pairs of hypothetical vaccines that diversified in a number of attributes, together with effectiveness, nation of origin, and price. The members rated how seemingly they might be to decide on to obtain every vaccine and chosen their most popular vaccine from every pair. Additionally they answered questions on their danger tolerance and their attitudes in the direction of vaccines.

Statistical evaluation of the outcomes confirmed that the attributes with the most important affect on hypothetical vaccine desire have been effectiveness and prevalence of unwanted effects. Individuals have been additionally much less more likely to favor vaccines from China or Russia and extra more likely to favor mRNA vaccines and people who price much less.

Nonetheless, members who displayed higher vaccine hesitancy confirmed much less distinction between completely different attributes of their vaccine preferences. The researchers say these findings spotlight the necessity to account for individuals’s particular person variations when contemplating vaccine preferences.

As a result of the attributes of those hypothetical vaccines don’t essentially replicate traits of precise COVID-19 vaccines, the real-world implications of this examine could also be restricted.

Nonetheless, whereas extra analysis is required, the researchers conclude that public well being messaging ought to search to make clear the attributes of various vaccines, however that such efforts will not be more likely to improve vaccination charges amongst people who find themselves probably the most vaccine hesitant. As an alternative, messages for this inhabitants might deal with altering attitudes in the direction of vaccines.

The authors add: “In keeping with different research, we present that individuals a lot most popular to obtain vaccines that have been proven to supply a sturdy degree of safety in opposition to COVID-19, with minimal unwanted effects, whereas different variations between vaccines had minimal impression on uptake. Nonetheless, we present that these elements mattered rather more for individuals who have been already open to vaccinations typically, whereas vaccine hesitant people have been a lot much less more likely to settle for a COVID vaccine, no matter how efficient and secure it was.”